User Reviews

Reviews by beercollector:

This place is just a short Trolley ride from the Conference Center. This makes it easy to get back and forth from downtown. The cab drivers are friendly and can get you back if you don't want to wait for the Trolley

The atmosphere is pretty industrial. The brew house is visible through glass. The staff were pretty helpful in the late afternoon before the dinner rush.

The beers are pretty yellow and typical lighter beers. Good enough to go with the BBQ whichwas why I came anyway. Good southern BBQ is hard to get in Oregon.

More User Reviews:

I really love the aromas of a place that has wood fired pizzas. The hickory or whatever type wood they use always brings a smile to my face. This place was no different.

The smells of the wood fired grill immediately greet the nose. Wooden floor, ceiling, bar, and just about everything else including tables and chairs. Pretty big and wide open on the inside. The brewing equipment is centrally located in the middle of the restaurant with the bar and other tables surrounding the enclosed space.

I sat at the bar and was immediatly greeted. I chose to have a pizza and it was delicious. Pizza and beer, what could be better. Well, the beer could be better I guess. I had an IPA which was pretty bland and tried the oatmeal porter and that was okay. None of the other beers I sampled really stood out.

The food here is good but the beer is barely average. However, I will always try to support the local brewer, even if it is somewhat of a chain.

Edit: after reading other reviews, I realize this place has undergone changes. My review was based on visits in middle and late 07.

My cousin and I checked this place out on a Saturday afternoon and it was nearly empty expect for a couple of folks at the bar. This establishment is no longer Southend Brewery and is now called "Woods on South". They carry many of the Cottonwood beers on tap and are now owned by Carolina Beer Co. based out of Mooresville. Service was excellent as the bartender was very attentive and friendly with us. The beer selection is good if you like the Cottonwood line of beers. I had a couple of pints of Frostbite which were quite tasty. We didn't try the food, but the bartender mentioned that the menu is "upscale Southern cuisine", which signals to me that it's probably expensive. He also mentioned that Carolina Beer has plans to start brewing on site in the very near future. Overall, not a bad place to have a pint and it's only a couple of blocks from the East Blvd. light rail station.

There are ...and are going to be... a lot of changes to this place. For one...they are revamping their entire food menu. Getting out of barbeque entirely and going to a more upscale menu. Secondly they are NOT currently brewing their own beer, and are using Cottonwood Ales. However they are hoping to begin brewing their own sometime around the first of 2008. I wish that the manager I spoke with sounded more sure on this point than he did. I heard an awful lot of..." Well if all goes as planned "...and " We HOPE to run some test batches around the end of the year, and IF they go over well...we'll take the next step. " Too many " maybes ", and not enough " definitives " for my taste. But I have hope.

This was another in a long line of micro brew/restaurant hybrids that all seem to suffer from the same fatal flaw in putting too much stock in their food menu(which is not really a bad thing) and not enough time spent brewing quality beer. I stopped in here with the wife for dinner and was very impressed with the roasted chicken I got as she was with the steak however all the beer seemed just a touch bland to me. Nothing really standing out and they just seemed to have a lack of soul to them. The place itself is fairly decent and it makes a great restaurant, but I think they should start bring in beer.

This was a really immense place with a huge facade that made it difficult to miss (and yet we did on our initial pass). As we entered, the m.d.s. was straight ahead with the brewhouse directly behind it. Blithering Idiot, just like the place in OK City that smoked their meats on premises, so did this place and the smells were mouthwatering. My friend remarked that it "smells like ribs".

Once I recovered from my spate of drooling, we were shown to a standard restaurant table on the far right-hand side of the space. We had a really good table, almost directly in front of the kitchen with all of its hustle and bustle. To the extreme right of the space were the washrooms, down a short passageway. The design was very open and industrial with steel beams, high ceilings, spinning ceiling fans, exposed ducting, and horizontal I-beams.

Their beers were fantastic, especially compared to what I had had to sift through at Rock Bottom on the previous evening. My picks would be, in descending order, Motorman's Pale Ale; O'Ryan's Oatmeal Stout; and Olmstead Red. What? What has it been with me and reds lately? Am I slipping as a hophead or is the style tending to be more hoppy than I remember? I asked and was told that theirs included Mount Hood, Galena, Eroica, and Northern Brewer varieties of hops.

Supper for me was a southern specialty that I had never heard of called Shrimp 'n' Grits, which was as simple as it sounds, and it was not only tasty, but it was so massive that I took the rest home and ate it for breakfast the next morning. I was told that it is not uncommon for a whole stick of butter to be melted into a single serving. Oh my!

Following our meal, I snuck over for a peek at the bar area which was located on the left side of the space upon entering. It started with a series of tables and chairs followed by a divider and then the dark wood bar. On this side, the serving tanks were visible behind glass. Above the bar were the Mug Club mugs and theirs was a collection even larger than the one at LNCBC.

Charlotte. This must be some terrific city to have named it after the spider that saved the humble pig. Anyway, Mike the Bue has thrown some periodic jabs my way over these last 6 years about not coming down to visit since they packed up the baby and headed south so Im well overdue, and I get to see Little Stevie Bullshit (his actual name) tomorrow so its like a whirlwind tour, with beer. I found Mike playing the 16th hole on this Friday afternoon and then we waited it out til everyone else got home before setting out for dinner
Big old stand alone industrial building with a brewroom front row center as you enter with glass walls for views from all sides, and you can deal bar area to the left or seating areas to the right from there. We opted for the seating areas as we were doing din and had Gracie Mae the Bue with us too (she was only a teeny tiny baby last time I saw her). 2 dozen tables & booths lined with thick white paper and an accompanying glass of crayons (I wrote my usual Help! Kidnappers with a big arrow pointing at the Bues). To the rear, a 9 seat arc pizza bar with a brick oven, drop melted glass cone and spiral metal piece lighting, and an open kitchen off to the right of that. Banquet seating towards the front, a single giant projection screen TV, and larger tulippish versions of the aforementioned lighting fixtures above. Red & white pulled fabric overhead (Sash action, says Lindsay), very peppermint, supposed to be Christmasy, but Im thinking more Circus Du Soleil.
On the other side, an L shaped bar seating a dozen + with 2 towers of 8 a piece. Mugs and pitchers above, TVs in the corners, and the taps listed on connecting boards a la Gilded Otter. A dozen tables in an adjacent side area and a half dozen neglected, dirty bar tables in the area near the front windows. Clearly, a group of people had just left there, but this area was left in its completely trashed form for way too long afterwards, so werent too keen on the management here, plus Mike had a scrap with the indifferent unkempt service person on entry, and we were witness to the hostess being rude to other parties (Standoffish, says Lindsay). Our lackluster waitperson rounded out the group with sheer indifference.
We ordered an ungodly mountain of nachos and I, for a change of pace, took in the sampler, served on an 8 slot board with a copper handle. The Motormans Pale Ale was decent, Cascade & Mt Hood hop; the Southern Blonde, pleasant malt character; the Olmsted Red, nicely malty, good toffee flavors; the Banktown Brown, light bodied, malty, not bad; the ORyans Oatmeal Stout, great black licorice flavor, oaty, not much carbonation; the Ironman Wheat, unfiltered, kind of fruity; the Southend Light Blonde, its blonde, its light; and the seasonal, a Pumpkin, spicy, slightly medicinal, I think it might be going. The Olmsted Red & the ORyans Oatmeal Stout were the best of the lot.
Beers were average to so-so for the most part and the Nachos were pretty good. But did I mention the entire staff was completely awful? Mike says this place used to be a lot better, I can totally believe that.

Stopped by a few weeks ago and had lunch. The food is pretty good here but the beer is so-so.

Large open dining area with a wood fired oven for pizzas and such. I had a crab cake sandwich which was pretty good and an IPA, which was not that good. The atmosphere of this place is nice, the service is good, and the food is good. Its too bad there beer is not better or I would have been raving about it but maybe their other choices that I have not tried are better.

Also, there used to be one of these in Raleigh but unfortunately it has gone out of business leaving Raleigh almost brew-publess which is not good for anyone.

This place is in a nice location off South Blvd with a good view of downtown. They keep white paper tablecloths with crayons for the kids to write on - may be nice for families.

I've eaten here a few times and love the food, but have not been terribly impressed with the beer selection. Their brews that I have sampled have been good, but not remarkable. Not a great variety in other selections available beyond the typical.

Overall, I would say this is a good restaurant but not much in the way of a beer establishment.

I went in Southend Brewery early the other evening. It was suprisingly empty. I took my family there for desert and a couple of beers for me. The deserts were at best so-so, they looked alot better on the menu than they tasted.

I had a stout right off the bat, it was ok, just like an average mass-produced stout would be. After that I had time for one more beer, so I opted for the current seasonal selection, and I.P.A. I was quite impressed with this beer. It was quite tasty and really made the trip worth while to me.

Southend Brewery in Charlotte, seems to be quite successful. Located in a converted warehouse, there is lots of room, but most of it is dedicated to the restaurant. The brewing operation is visible in the back but not emphasized. They have six regular brews and one rotating seasonal. The beers are true to style, but seem more commercial than passionate. In mid afternoon, the wait staff was more interestred in preparing and straightening than it was in being attentive. It is one of a chain with other locations in Raleigh and Charleston.

I have been wanting to go to Southend Brewery since I moved to Charlotte and I finally got the chance the other day. The brewery is in an interesting building, not just some boring strip mall. The brew equipment is in the center of the restaurant behind glass.

We went on a Monday night and the place was pretty dead. I do not know how busy Southend is on other nights. For some reason, maybe it was darker than other restaurants, I just did not feel the place was totally clean (the bathrooms certainly were not). About the only requirement I have for a waiter/waitress is that they be friendly. Our waiter was not rude, but certainly did not exude friendliness.

The food was above average and my wife liked her portabello sandwich. I drank the Oatmeal Stout and my wife had their Wheat. The Stout tasted like an Irish Dry Stout (IMO). Overall, the beer was not bad, but nothing to write home about. Southend Brewery is worth checking out, but if you are like me, you probably will not return.

Southend brewery is a good choice if you happen tp be in the Charlotte area. Beers are about the same quality as Hops or Rock Bottem. All good, but none outstanding. The atmosphere is spacious and open. Decor is dark and the brewery is visible behing glass. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger which was off the hook. All their meats are grilled over wood coals or smoked, tastey. Beer selection is on the weak side with your pedestrian array of Pale Ale, Red Ale, IPA, and Oatmeal Stout. The pale ale was decent and thirst quenching, although a bit lacking in the hop/flavor dept. The oatmeal stout, nitro-tapped, was better. It was smooth and creamy, light to medium in body, and full of nutty chocolate and dark malt flavors. I'd definately stop here again.

What could be cooler than stopping into a brewpub for a beer? I would say stopping in to Southend Brewery on a Sunday afternoon and having Ric Flair sit at the bar a few stools away. The man was kind and genuine. Now, let's get to the beer.

The stout was good. They also had a pale and a blonde. I didn't try the food. The atmosphere was upscale. I felt a little underdressed, but welcome, in my track jacket and blue jeans. The place had high ceilings with lots of space and a nice patio. The bartender was wearing a bow tie. That, I believe, is what made me feel out of place. Check out their beers if you get a chance.

Not what you would typically expect from a brewpub. Very open atmosphere that does not appeal for those wanting privacy (not a great first date place). Not a bad choice of food but a little on the expensive side. Known as a "Best pizza in Charlotte" and though I would disagree, if you like thin wood oven pizza, a good choice.

Excellent beer specials every day and for the ones that I have had, I recommend. Very good brown ale. Nice location in Charlotte--a good place to start the evening.